In West Philadelphia Born and Raised...

Now, this is the story all about how

My life got flipped-turned upside down

And I'd like to take a minute

Just sit right there

I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air

In west Philadelphia born and raised

On the playground was where I spent most of my days

Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool

And all shootin some b-ball outside of school

When a couple of guys

Who were up to no good

Startin making trouble in my neighborhood

I got in one little fight and my mom got scared

She said 'You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air'

I'm sure you're all familiar with this great classic- the theme song to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. But last Sunday, I got to see it FOR REAL. POTUS and VPOTUS had an event in Philly. While technically this wasn't West Philly and was actually North Philly, the scene was the same and I'm pretty sure I saw the same school in the intro to the show! I understand why Will went to live with Phil and Viv Banks on the TV show!!

When we drove into the neighborhood of the DNC rally on Sunday morning, I knew it was going to be an interesting day. I never get to see the most exciting parts of the city when we travel with POTUS but this by far was more interesting than any industrial park or hotel convention center where we normally are. I was supposed to meet my camera guy Bill at a church parking lot. He said to just roll down the window and go to the smell of the pork barbecue at a church. Now there were many, many churches all in a couple block radius but only one with a guy grilling ribs. The United Church of Prayer for All People, Inc. seemed like a safe place to leave the car!

The neighborhood was a bit rough, to be kind. Bars on every single window. Bullet proof glass at the counters of food establishments. Some rough looking characters on the street corners. (Although to be fair, we encountered many, many nice people!) Let's just say that I was glad that I was there for a POTUS rally because it meant there was a heavy law enforcement presence. I don't want to sound stuck up and better than anyone else but it just wasn't the best part of town to bring the leader of the free world and the guy who is first in line for the presidency to hang out in a park for an afternoon.

The rally itself was in a city park connected to an elementary school. City officials claim that 18,000 people were there... I was thinking more like 10,000 but it was a lot of people regardless of the actual number. It was definitely a campaign style stop with tons of people and signs and loud music to "fire up the crowd". I used my handy-dandy earplugs from my last chopper ride and I could almost hear. We did liveshots continuously about the event and I would have to say there was more electricity/excitement in the crowd that pretty much any other POTUS event.

The highlights of this trip were really not POTUS related. I mean, the crowd was exciting and it was a fun event to cover but blah, blah, blah, blah. Two things really stood out.

First of all, I saw the streaker in the crowd. I don't know if you've read about him but you can here. POTUS was definitely too far away to notice him. But he ran about two feet away from me. I was so shocked that this was first streaker I had seen at a POTUS event (actually now that I think about it, it might have been the first streaker I have seen in real life) that I really forgot to do my job. I admit it. I was just staring. I was trying to figure out what he had written on himself. Then I was trying to figure out why he wasn't running faster. Then I was trying to figure out why no one was stopping him. Eventually, I alerted Bill who caught some of the incident on tape for future posterity. But it was quite a moment. A weird moment. But it was a moment nonetheless. I can officially cross "seeing a streaker in person" off my list of things to do in life. Actually it wasn't on my list but if it was, I would definitely cross it off. I don't have any pictures to share because A) that would probably qualify my blog as some porn site and B) I was too busy staring and gaping that I didn't take pictures. Yes, I admit it.

The second thing was the workspace bathrooms. Now I'm just grateful that we had a workspace inside, safely away from the 10,000 people so this is not a complaint. It was actually in the music room of the elementary school so we were educated with pictures of woodwinds (I was the expert, of course, and was really tempted to move the picture of the oboe over to the other double reed instruments instead of by the flute. OMG, I am such a nerd!!!!) Anywho, I loved the bathroom. I felt like a freakin' giant and that NEVER happens! The bathroom was made for an elementary school but it was sized more for three year-olds than anyone else. I know you can't tell from the picture how low the toilet is to the ground but I'm pretty sure it was a matter of inches. But seriously, I felt like a giant!!